Although it passed without obvious hoopla, this past weekend marked a big milestone -- the 2,500th reTails pet adoption since the organization was founded in 2010. Since we have cats available daily at 3 Indianapolis-area Petco stores, in addition to our Washington Square Mall adoption center, it's hard to say exactly which animal was #2500. It could've been one of the adopted cats:

Phoebe, Huggy, Sammie, Callie, Blackie, Lil Bit, Jag, Sally, Rags, Sienna, Lil Girl

...or one of the dogs:

Moe, Ali, Penny, Adella, Maya, Rocky, Bertie

Although reTails originally began doing traveling adoption events with modest success in early 2010, it wasn't until we opened our adoption center in Washington Square Mall that we began to make a much bigger difference in the lives of more at-risk dogs and cats. This past fall, we finished a year-long renovation of a 5,000 square foot space, giving us more than 4 times as much space as our first location in the mall.

To fully appreciate the scope of this accomplishment, you must also know that the reTails adoption center in Washington Square Mall is staffed solely by volunteers! It has operated every weekend (Fri-Sun) since October, 2010. It takes an amazing level of dedication by many volunteers to make it all work, and we couldn't do it without the help of so many! If you'd like to find out how you too can help, consider volunteering!

Some of the pets are rescued from local shelters, but many others come through our Rehoming Assistance Program or "RAP". Under RAP, owners who need to find homes for their pets are scheduled to bring their pets to our adoption center and also have their pet showcased online through Petfinder. The pet continues to stay in the owner's home. This is much less stressful for the pet than having to go into a foster home and eliminates the uncertainty of what might happen to the pet if it was surrendered to a shelter. If you need assistance rehoming a pet, check out our Rehoming page to see more about the available options.

Make sure to check out some of our Adoptable Pets, but remember that we get new pets every week and coming to our Washington Square Mall adoption center on Friday at 6 p.m. is the best way to see pets before they are posted online!

In October, 2010, reTails became the first pet rescue organization in the state to operate a permanent pet adoption center in a mall (Washington Square Mall). That adoption center was only 1,100 square feet, and was often so crowded that it was impossible to walk from one end of the store to the other. Despite that, almost 2,000 adoptions were done in the 2 years of that adoption center operating every weekend.

Almost 2 years to the day, and after more than a year of hard work, reTails opened a new, 5,000 square foot adoption center in Washington Square Mall. The space had been vacant for more than 5 years and was seriously "messed up" during the remodeling that added the Target store and used as storage and work space for the mall.

"Before"

After literally thousands of labor hours over the course of a year, the space was transformed into a completely unique experience. The dog kennels were designed in-house, and allow dogs --and people-- total visibility. This, combined with the larger size greatly increases the comfort of the dogs, as well as eliminating the possibility of anyone climbing out.

The center was fitted with 2 free-roaming cat enclosures, each capable of housing up to 7 cats. The largest enclosure encompasses the large, front display window looking out into the mall and is a favorite place for the cats and mall visitors. The enclosures as well as the dog kennels were designed and constructed from unique "found" pieces, or materials available from the local home improvement center. Virtually all furniture in the adoption center was donated as well.

On the second week open in the new adoption center, this video was shot to give you a look into the new space: